Vast secures $500 million to accelerate commercial space station development

Commercial space station developer Vast has raised $500 million in its first major external funding round to support the development of its orbital infrastructure projects.

The company announced on March 5 that it had secured $300 million in Series A equity funding along with $200 million in debt financing. The investment round was led by Balerion Space Ventures, with participation from IQT, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Mitsui & Co., MUFG, Nikon, Stellar Ventures, Space Capital, and Earthrise Ventures.

The company had previously been financed primarily by Jed McCaleb, the cryptocurrency billionaire who founded Vast. McCaleb also took part in the latest funding round.

“Vast was founded with a long-term vision of billions of people living and thriving in space. Achieving a goal of this magnitude requires deliberate steppingstones, and our strategy of building, testing and iterating with real hardware is delivering results,” McCaleb said in a statement. “It is exciting to welcome additional investors who recognize Vast’s long-term potential and share our belief in making this vision a reality.”

Before this investment round, Vast had already invested more than $1 billion in building the company and developing its line of commercial space stations. The Long Beach, California-based firm now employs more than 1,000 people.

Haven-1 space station planned for 2027

The company is currently developing Haven-1, a single-module commercial space station scheduled to launch in early 2027. The platform will serve as a precursor to the larger Haven-2 station, a multi-module facility the company plans to propose to NASA under the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations (CLD) program.

“Our key differentiator is that we don’t believe we can start with that,” said Max Haot, chief executive of Vast, during a panel discussion at the ASCENDxTexas conference on February 25. “We believe we need steppingstones to make sure it’s safe and also to make sure that we prove to ourselves and our partners that we can do it.”

To test technologies for Haven-1, Vast launched Haven Demo, a small satellite designed to validate key subsystems planned for the station. Haot said the spacecraft was safely deorbited recently after completing its orbital tests.

Private astronaut mission planned

Vast also secured a private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on February 12, scheduled for mid-2027 or later. The mission will be similar to those conducted by another commercial space station developer, which has already completed 4 missions and plans a 5th mission in early 2027.

Meanwhile, commercial space station companies are waiting for NASA to release the final request for proposals (RFP) for the second phase of the CLD program.

Delays in issuing the RFP were cited in a NASA authorization bill approved by the Senate Commerce Committee on March 4, which proposes extending the ISS operations until the end of 2032.

“The RFP should come out when [NASA Administrator] Jared Isaacman and potentially the White House and other stakeholders are ready,” Haot said. “I think there’s some urgency, but I think Jared and them team will get it out as soon as they can.”

Focus on government demand

Haot said the company expects NASA and other space agencies to remain its primary customers in the early years rather than emerging markets such as microgravity manufacturing or pharmaceutical research.

“In the long term, we all want the LEO economy to thrive. We want to be making drugs in space,” he said.

“In our internal projections, in our fundraising and our business model, we have close to zero dollars for the LEO economy in the next five years.”

According to Haot, Vast plans to rely initially on demand from NASA, other ISS partner nations, emerging space agencies, and a limited number of self-funded private astronauts.

Growing competition in commercial space stations

The funding round comes less than 1 month after another commercial space station developer raised $350 million, with Qatar Investment Authority also participating in that investment.

As part of the new funding round, A.C. Charania, adviser at Balerion and former NASA chief technologist, will join Vast’s board.

“With its impressive hardware and expertise, Vast is the only operational commercial space station company to have designed, built and flown its own spacecraft, Haven Demo,” Charania said.

“Haven stations will play a critical role in sustaining a continuous human presence in orbit and the LEO economy while providing nations around the world the opportunity to strengthen leadership in space.”